An Onion Exposed: Homemade Soft Caramels

I am a sucker for caramel. And chocolate. Put them together and I'm pretty much out of control. Not good.

Silly me got it in my head that I was going to try to make homemade soft caramels. They turned out great, but I didn't stop. I started getting all these ideas in my head on what else I could do with them.

This recipe makes a 9x13 inch pan of soft caramels (and believe me, a little goes a long way!), and I used them a few different ways. You can leave them plain if you'd like. Just be sure to wrap them in parchment or wax paper, otherwise they will spread and stick to each other.

For our batch, I left some plain.

Sprinkled sea salt on others.

Melted dark chocolate baking chips and dunked some in, then topped with sea salt.

Stuffed pecans in the bottom of the rest, dunked them in the chocolate and topped it off with another pecan.

The possibilities are endless! (Not to mention hazardous for my health. Eek.)

Just be sure that when you make these babies, you have a place to bring them to share, or people you can give them away to. They also keep well in the freezer if you can make them last long enough. :)

Ingredients

14 oz. sweetened condensed milk

2 c. sugar

1 c. butter

1/2 tsp. salt

1 1/2 c. corn syrup

(Optional ingredients: sea salt, dark chocolate, pecans)

Directions

Butter a 9x13 inch baking dish and set aside.

Stir all ingredients in a large, heavy bottomed pot and turn to medium heat.

Stir often until small bubbles begin to form.

Attach your candy thermometer and stir constantly (but do NOT scrape the sides) until mixture reaches 240 degrees (soft ball stage).

Immediately pour into buttered pan and let cool completely.

Once caramels are cooled, you can coat them in your favorite chocolate, or wrap them individually in wax/parchment paper.

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(Directions with Photos)

Butter a 9x13 inch baking dish and set aside.

Stir all ingredients in a large, heavy bottomed pot.

Begin heating over medium heat.

Stir often until small bubbles begin to form.

Attach your candy thermometer and begin stirring constantly.

However, do NOT scrape the sides while stirring, only touch the bottom!

(Believe me, you will want to, but don't do it. If you begin scraping the sides, the sugars crystalize and you will have hard chunks in your caramels instead of nice smooth pieces of candy.)